Western Energy Policy

International Oil Policy

Amory Lovins' article in Foreign Affairs, October 1976, drew a great deal of comment, much of it critical. Hugh Nash, a friendly editor, here reorganizes the attacks and rebuttals into more readable form than the congressional reports in which they were originally collected. Evans, a journalist from New Zealand, provides a clear but slightly dated account of the energy policies of major countries and concludes that price and competition are the best weapons to get "humane and efficient" results. Although Safer, an American consultant, believes that high prices will eventually produce an abundance of oil, he wants the United States to do a number of things in the meantime to drive down the OPEC price. These include subsidies and quotas on imports, less regulation at home and financing exploration abroad.